The hidden history of the minimum wage in America

Mark J. Perry is concurrently a scholar at AEI and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan's Flint campus. He is best known as the creator and editor of the popular economics blog Carpe Diem. At AEI, Perry writes about economic and financial issues for American.com and the AEIdeas blog.

Don [George Mason University economics professor Don Boudreaux] has emphasized a very important, but usually overlooked or neglected reason that some empirical studies fail to find negative employment effects following increases in the minimum wage government-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for America’s teenagers and low-skilled workers (especially minorities). That reason has to do with the fact that the minimum wage has been in effect for almost 80 years since the Fair Unfair to Unskilled Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, and it’s been increased 27 times since then. Therefore, the government’s mandated market-suppressing, artificial wage for low- and un-skilled workers has been around for such a long time, and it’s been raised so many times, that the distortionary effects of the minimum wage have long ago been “internalized” by employers who hire unskilled workers.

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Remember the stimulus?

Obama promised his failed Stimulus plan would create 3 million jobs. He lied. The stimulus ended up costing taxpayers $278,000 for each job created.

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The real data on illegal immigrants and U.S. jobs

If you like charts and graphs, there are some good ones here:

Immigrant Gains and Native Losses In the Job Market, 2000 to 2013

BTW, Loretta Lynch is just saying that, although she is up for the top law enforcement job in America, she doesn't intend to enforce the laws. That would only entitle you to a position in Obama's world, but not the United States of America as founded.

Don Boudreaux’s ongoing, excellent coverage of the minimum wage issue

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE:

No one has more steadfastly, consistently and vigorously brought economy sanity, logic and reason to the issue of the minimum wage law government-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for America’s teenagers and low-skilled workers (especially minorities) than George Mason University economics professor Don Boudreaux. On his Café Hayek blog, Don has for many years regularly covered the minimum wage issue with his wisdom, wit, and keen economic thinking, and I applaud his ongoing efforts to educate his readers, students and (hopefully, some day maybe) policymakers about an important economic issue.

In several recent posts, Don has emphasized a very important, but usually overlooked or neglected reason that some empirical studies fail to find negative employment effects following increases in the minimum wagegovernment-mandated wage floor that guarantees reduced employment opportunities for America’s teenagers and low-skilled workers (especially minorities). That reason has to do with the fact that the minimum wage has been in effect for almost 80 years since the Fair Unfair to Unskilled Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938, and it’s been increased 27 times since then. Therefore, the government’s mandated market-suppressing, artificial wage for low- and un-skilled workers has been around for such a long time, and it’s been raised so many times, that the distortionary effects of the minimum wage have long ago been “internalized” by employers who hire unskilled workers. Don explains that phenomenon in a recent blog post where he schools Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein about his “simply poor economic journalism,” and provides this additional commentary:

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Immigrant Gains and Native Losses In the Job Market, 2000 to 2013

Great charts:

It would be a mistake to think that every job taken by an immigrant is a job lost by a native. But it would also be a mistake to think that dramatically increasing the supply of workers has no impact on the employment prospects of natives. The idea that there are jobs American's don't do is simply not supported by the data. Moreover, there is good research showing that immigrants displace natives from the labor market.

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Mike Rowe: "What you do, who you’re with, and how you feel about the world around you, is completely up to you."

Man Asks Mike Rowe for “Life Advice” – His Response is the Best Thing You’ll Read Today

Social progress?

The old employer sponsored system forced people to stay in jobs they didn’t like because they needed the health insurance coverage. The new Obamacare system will force people to stay out of jobs they do want because they need to maximize their subsidies. And this is social progress?

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Why Did FDR’s New Deal Harm Blacks?

If FDR’s New Deal policies weren’t conceived with racist intent, they certainly had racist consequences. Hopefully in the future, more people will try to better understand the often startling, unexpected consequences of government interference with the economy.

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Key elements of Republicans’ alternative health care plan

• No job losses
• No Medicare cuts
• No tax increases

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Retailers are cutting worker hours at a rate not seen in more than three decades

Thanks Barack… Retailers Cut Hours At Rate Not Seen in 3 Decades – Due to Obamacare

RAND CORP: Terrorism drives women out of the labor force

Terrorism drives down women's participation in the labor force, a working paper from the Rand Corp. says.

The paper (.pdf), based on terrorism data from 165 countries from 1980-2007, finds a causal link between terrorist attacks and the labor force gender gap.

"It might seem strange at first to consider terrorism influencing female labor force participation on any significant scale; however, research into the gendered-effects of violent conflict has a long history," the paper says.

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But you already knew this

Research has found that workers with long commutes of over 30 miles die younger than those who live closer to their work.

Bad news for business owners

Reality is beginning to sink in.

USA TODAY: Health care law may mean less hiring in 2013

Many businesses plan to bring on more part-time workers next year, trim the hours of full-time employees or curtail hiring because of the new health care law, human resource firms say.

Their actions could further dampen job growth, which already is threatened by possible federal budget cutbacks resulting from the tax increases and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff.

"It will have a negative impact on job creation" in 2013, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. . .

The so-called employer mandate to offer health coverage doesn't take effect until Jan. 1, 2014. But to determine whether employees work enough hours on average to receive benefits, employers must track their schedules for three to 12 months prior to 2014 — meaning many are restructuring payrolls now or will do so early next year.

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The President's gift to veterans

So, the Romney's are selfish for keeping a horse?

* And employing a groom with a family to support

* And paying for feed that's sold by someone with a family to support

* And transported in trucks by someone with a family to support

* And manufactured in a factory by people with families to support

* From stuff that's grown by farmers with families to support

* And having a barn built by construction workers with families to support

* With materials trucked by drivers with families to support

* From factories with workers with families to support

Sounds to me like that one horse has done more to put Americans to work than the horse's ass that's in the White House!

The Entrepreneurs Hour

Hugh Hewitt today: Three entrepreneurs join me in hour three today

SHOW TRANSCRIPTS

The story of jobs

EconomicFreedom.org

"It's not about jobs, it's about entrepreneurs. The only way to grow the economy is to truly learn how to grow entrepreneurs."

--Michael Gerber, World’s #1 Small Business Guru (creator of "E-Myth")

The chart that will get Obama fired

Henry Blodget over at Business Insider has the low down.

Remember Obama's campaign slogan "all fired up" ...

2012:  "FIRED"

Unemployment Rate Dropped In Every State That Elected A Republican Gov. In 2010

On the other hand, the unemployment rate in states that elected Democrats in 2010 dropped, on average, as much as the national rate decline and, in some states such as New York, the unemployment rate has risen since January of 2011.

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